Little as James the First did towards establishing an inland post, though with materials so ready to his hand, in the posts of which we have spoken, yet he deserves some credit for setting on foot a general post for letters to foreign countries. It would seem that the abuses complained of by English merchants, with regard to letters coming _from_ abroad, had been lessened by the appointment of an English Postmaster for the Foreign Office, but not so with letters _sent_ abroad: hence the independent foreign post projected by the King. In another of the very numerous proclamations of his reign, it is stated that the King had created the office of Postmaster-General for Foreign Parts, "being out of our dominions, and hath appointed to this office Matthew de Quester the elder, and Matthew de Quester the younger." The duties of this new office are stated to consist in the "sole taking up, sending, and conveying of all packets and letters concerning his service, or business to be despatched into forraigne parts, with power to grant moderate salaries." These appointments interfering in some way with his department, gave great offence to Lord Stanhope, the English "Chief Postmaster," and mutual unpleasantness sprung up between the officers of the two establishments. A suit was instituted in the law courts, and whilst it was pending, both offices got completely disarranged, some of Lord Stanhope's staff going without salary for as long as eight years; "divers of them," as we find it given in a petition to the Council, "lie now in prison by reason of the great debt they are in for want of their entertainment." The dispute was not settled until after Charles the First had become king--namely, in 1632--when Lord Stanhope was induced to retire from the service as "Chief Postmaster," the De Questers at the same time assigning the office they had jointly held to William Frizell and Thomas Witherings. A royal proclamation was thereupon issued, to the effect that the King approved of the above assignment. "The King," it went on to say, "affecting the welfare of his people, and taking into his princely consideration how much it imports his state and this realm, that the secrets thereof be not disclosed to forraigne nations, which cannot be prevented if a promiscuous use of transmitting or taking up of forraigne letters and packets should be suffered, forbids all others from exercising that which to the office of such postmaster pertaineth, at their utmost perils."